After the long summer, team Tarka reconvened today to begin planning for the 2010 competition. Early days yet, but we have new people on board, a new team captain, Jon Burton, and much stronger links to the ship science group. It should be an exciting year ahead.
First date for the diary is the 20th October, when last year's team will give a talk at the IEEE student branch. See the IEEE site for more information.
Eland cables have added an entry to their reel life blog about team tarka, and the important part that Eland played in getting our boat ready for the competition.
So, the end of Project Tarka has arrived with the following results today:
3rd place qualifying event
Winners : Teamwork Award
Winners: Best Score for a rookie team
Winners: Sportsmanship Award
Overall Place : 10th
We had three excellent sprint results today, with three consistent runs of 47s, 47s and 50s (with an experimental prop angle and not fully charged batteries). Karim drove very well under difficult conditions, and the boat looked great. Karim also now knows the new technical term "give it the beans!"...
Yesterday was a highlight, with the morning run a tactical error on the power management front leaving us short on battery power too early and 14 laps completed, but the second run was simply *outstanding*, with 17.75 laps completed and one of the best pieces of overall teamwork I've ever seen.
Dirk driving to a schedule superbly, Karim doing Telemetry and working really hard to get it working and then providing fantastic numbers, Rich on race tactics and superb radio, and myself on the Radio point on the dam overlooking the race and providing wind and race status to Dirk and the guys. The outcome was joint first in the standings in the Silver medal race, and a really exciting race, from being lapped early on, to a two hour chase of the leading boat which we caught up on the final minutes with the batteries giving out as the finish hooter went...it was fantastic...
From an engineering standpoint we had *no* problems with any of the engineering, and the boat was running on its limits all week - it could have not been run better. The best compliment paid was almost every team saying "we need to watch out for your guys next year".
Many thanks for all your help, hard work and commitment - and I hope we've done everyone proud with this rookie outing, exceeding my expectation. Getting into the top ten was a dream this year, but I didn't really dare to hope we'd actually do it- the strength of some of the teams is just scary. This means that we now know our number for 2010 - number 10 - as only the top ten boats get a number for the following year.
So, now the work starts for next year, but we'll have a party around the boat when I get it shipped back (we packed it all up in the crate today), and acknowledge everyone's efforts when we all get back.
Cheers,
Peter
(Image courtesy of Scott Miller http://sjmpix.zenfolio.com)
For a day with less than a minute of boat running today was intense. Our boat is running well and we are slick at running it. We performed as predicted in the sprint race, losing some ground with a time in the middle of the field. We are happy, however, that it will not jeopardise our competitive ranking and we envisage a recovery with our strong event; the endurance race. Our commitment to assisting the Mexican team in their qualifying efforts came to a head this morning; after their near sinking yesterday they found their motor to be inoperable. Despite being the smallest team we split up for an ultimately unsuccessful attempt at repairing their systems. The boat was almost completely rewired by myself with help from representatives from Carnegie Mellon and Cederville universities; within 45 minutes. The proprietary brushless motor, being tied into the system's controller, prevented the necessary controller replacement from being possible; ultimately consigning the Mexican team to a retirement from the competition. In the meantime as well as running the battery charging strategy and preparing the boat for competition the rest of the team fine tuned the telemetry system to extend its range; not strictly necessary but a luxury to confirm the accuracy of our readings. Our lasting impression of the day remains the New Orleans boat which ran a 23 second 300m, its acceleration is literally explosive.
Richard, Team Tarka
Another succesful day on the water gave us cause for encouragement. As we departed from the paddock area we were leading the event overall but with the top teams still to qualify we await further results with baited breath. Our major limiting factor currently is the boat's propellor, with such a low pitch we are unable to deliver the copious power that our electrical system is able to generate; causing us to lose a couple of seconds in the sprint racing over our rivals. Given the nature of the competition, however, we are confident this will not stop us from maintaining a high ranking. Our lead in the, all be it restricted, standings is in no small part thanks to our placing of 4th in the scoring for the technical reports. It was quite something watching some of the faster boats sprinting and I, for one, would love to have a greater emphasis on speed in the marking to encourage more high speed development. Given more support in the future we will be back with a competitive high speed configuration. Less fortunate were the Mexican team who employed our assistance in retrieving their sinking boat, which had been damaged in transit. We hope they will be able to patch the holes and qualify in time tomorrow. Good luck guys.
Richard, Team Tarka
Today saw the start of the organised event and we pitched up with our towels earlier than everyone else, not because we're organised but because we're still waking up at 6am. We were subsequently moved on but were fortunate enough to be placed next to last year's winning team, from whom we intend to learn much. With a little fettling we passed the technical inspection, although we're still to find out whether they will allow our batteries as they are on the borderline of being too heavy. People seem to like our boat and the general consensus appears to be surprise at the speed with which we were able to construct it. Our work space accommodates us easily, especially when compared with the larger crews and they are all larger than ours. The boat spent the day standing proud, the most obvious boat from the entrance and looking smart with all its sponsorship decals, the union flag welcoming all interested parties. Interested parties were in plentiful supply throughout the day and I've become used to being introduced as 'Richard, the one you won't understand'. We left the boat this evening ready for our seaworthiness trials tomorrow morning and headed for a provided supper at the university football team's stadium. Some more calculations await our attention this evening, as does a pack of beer.
Richard, Team Tarka
After spending yesterday fixing the multitude of broken boat parts we were able to commence testing today. The boat was run for approximately 4 hours in variations of the endurance configuration. A close to optimum configuration has been found and further analysis of data later tonight will allow us to select a number of parameters that are still unclear. The boat performed well and we are optimistic that it is competitive, in the endurance configuration; based on the information gleaned from local competitors. We are prepared to be shocked by the speeds that the faster boats may reach in the sprint configuration. Observations have shown that the local boat uses two motors, which are identical to our one; an extravagance we simply could not afford. The custom props are another significant difference that with extra funding and time next year we intend to consider. Despite our low cost solution local observers appeared to be impressed and we were pleasantly surprised at how much running we achieved; the sun here is good, for the boat at least. We are now off to sample the delights of the local brewery, wish us luck. Team Tarka
Peter Wilson gave a talk hosted by the IEEE student branch this evening, on the progress of Team Tarka and the Solar Splash competition. We were also recruiting for a team for Solar Splash 2010. Please get in touch if you'd like to be involved next year.
Tarka was on display outside the Mountbatten building on campus this morning, in fantastic sunshine. Lots of ECS staff and students came to look and ask questions before we packed her up into the shipping crate, and onto a lorry to begin the long trip to the US.
See the ECS news story too.
The boat launch was totally successful!
Tarka went out on the water this evening for her first powered test. With only two batteries and even those not fully charged, it was still very impressive to see the speed and manoeuvrability on the water. It's really very pleasing to see what we've achieved in such a short time, and a relief that we will have a good demonstration for our press launch tomorrow!
It was one of those rare bright Monday mornings where the intense sunlight was shining down on our south-facing Mountbatten roof garden. We decided to use this space as our solar panel test facility for the day.
The 215W SunPower panels were specifically chosen for their superior power to weight ratio and adequate efficiency. They were connected directly to a neat-looking MPPT, which was wired to a 12V Varta battery.
The selected MPPT has a set of indication LEDs that correspond to its charging status. Once the panel packaging was removed and the sunlight was exposed, the appropriate LEDs flashed on indicating that the panel was successfully charging the battery.
Recently, signs of anxiety had dawned upon members of the team after learning that the deadline for shipping the boat was just under a month. This led to significant progress on the hull construction front.
Sanding down the edges
Adding epoxy and glass fibre tape over all the seams of the boat
And laying a uni-directional glass sheet from bow to stern in order to reinforce the boat along its length.
Of course, that work only concerned the inside of the boat. Next, came the outside –the never ending story!
As with any racing boat the outer surface must be designed for ultimate smoothness. In our case, this was achieved by filling all the bottom panel edges and holes with epoxy, waiting for it to dry, sanding and then dusting off any excess. It is difficult to recall the number of times we repeated this process but we certainly went as far as to ensure that the hull wasn’t sanded away into one big pile of wood dust.
So here we are, sanding all the way through the night, removing any bumps or ridges in sight.
Rich spending most of his days resolving that crack:
Upon arrival, Dirk also got a piece of the action having bought a sanding disk for his drill, which he had previously opposed to using for the reason of dealing with extra thin plywood!
During Reuben’s visit we managed to get a look at his well crafted gearbox that was specifically designed to fit with our outboard and Lynch motor.
The exterior of the boat progressively refined to a nice, smooth and regular surface. Eventually, after sustaining a few hand cuts and burses, a sore back and a permanent high from the smell of epoxy we finally reached a point where we felt confident in her curves!
It was time to bring her out into the fresh air, give her a very thin layer of epoxy and a good wash...
Once that was done we got out the grey paint and applied three coatings:
After the third coating we decided to prepare for our first launch in the water.
Lets hope this baby can float!!!
Scarfs, Scarphing is all very stressful and intense....
Never perfect, always difficult... not bad, but highly frustrating and very rewarding.... The kindof thing you pat yourself on the back for, but get frustrated with yourself for not having done better and faster.
Intense week! Things are really getting quite stressful! Our Monday meeting started with Reuben getting really stressed, with the scarfs not being completed. After Jess and I worked really hard trying to get them lined up,
Although still not fast enough for Reuben's Standards, the boat build proceeds full steam ahead! Boy do small things take a long time!
Last monday we dropped the panels off at Jon's Double Garage converted to a Boat shed! It was quite messy, so after Jess did a whirlwind cleanup, the garage looked fantastic!
Well,
Last week Thursday, Friday and Saturday certainly were interesting days!
Thursday
After Reuben spent all of Wednesday night dividing up and laying out our boat chines and bulkheads on 8 by 4 panels, Jess and I took our new car (Thanks to Cath who sold it to us super cheap as she is skippering a boat around the country for the Ellen McArthur Trust) to Totton Timbers to buy some Gaboon (Jess first thought it was called Kaboom!) and Marine Ply.
Having strapped the sheets on properly, the little grey rocket was ready to roll with the wood on the roof wrapped in plastic sheeting as it had snowed that morning, and rained during the day!
We had a pretty uneventful trip, and arrived in Poole ahead of schedule. - We met up with the Oval316 guys - Wow! They were super friendly and helpful. First time I have ever seen a waterjet cutter, and it is pretty scary stuff! We dropped off the panels, and decided to have a little wonder around Bournemouth and Poole, as it was our first time ever in the area.
It was amazing to see surfers and a beach a with sand! We laughed a bit at the surfers though, fighting for waves on the 6.5 inch ankle breakers...
Friday
Being typical students, we figured we would leave and head off at around 3pm to fetch the cut panels, nice and early in the day! Little did we realise that most of the working world close a little early on Fridays! So when the panels had finished being cut, Rich and I jumped into the car and sped off to go and fetch the panels. Thankfully, Paul from Oval316 waited over an hour for us to collect the panels!
We cleaned out the cutting shop, and even took all the leftover scrap pieces
Great! All the pieces in the car, we headed back in relief that the cutting was all complete and done! About 15 minutes outside of Southampton, Rich and I are chatting about the boat and trying to count the panels to ensure that we have the right number. We are pretty certain that we should have the right amount, because we even double checked the workshop. Suddenly KABOOM! Glass everywhere!
Rich and look around to try and understand what the hell just happened, and after what feels like ages, we realise nothing to serious has happened, but the sunroof exploded! I suddenly realise that the little rock that I saw bounce on the road, must have got sucked through between the roof and scrap on the roofracks and smashed the sunroof!
From the inside
From the outside
Chris my housemate, and Rich puzzled over how the hell it happened. 
Panicked about the sunroof, we head over to Rich's house/workshop/motor guru hangout to ask for some guru opinion. Thank goodness Rich was there, as I would have run around in circles like a headless chicken panicking about informing Jess that her new car had a whole in its head. The gurus confirmed Richs ideas, and we headed back to my house to purchase a Haynes manual and phone up some 'scrapies' and the autoglass repair hotline.
After a couple of quotes over £200 for a new sunroof, Rich phoned up some scrapyards he new about, and we managed to find a place which had a used sunroof for £45, and another yard which if they had one, they would sell to us for around a tenner! My ulcer subsided, and I managed to call Jess to inform her about her week old vehicle!
As it was now too late to head off to the scrapyards, we decided to call it a day.
Saturday
Seeing that Jess's car was injured, we decided to go rallying in Rich's BMW. Quickly speeding past Ocean village, we picked up Karim, and headed to the chandleries and marine outboard stores in the Hamble. This started our engine discussion which hopefully will finish today!
We then headed to the Scrapyard to see if we could find the sunroof. What a weird experience - My first scrapyard! 
Karim and Jess weirded out about the strange place.
Car upon car of wrecked metal
Success!! Ten pound solution!
Having found the sunroof, we headed back to the University to continue our discussion on the engine. What a relief about the sunroof!
Monday
Reuben emails us and informs us that we left two panels in Poole! Dow! After all that, we really felt like idiots...
The panels for the hull have been cut using a high pressure water jet. This is courtesy of Oval Stainless in Poole, so we're very appreciative of their support, and for doing a very quick turnaround!
So the hull exists, albeit in bits at the moment...
We had a series of meetings today to make sure that the build is completed in time to ship to the US. Reuben is going to project manage the build, and it really feels like everything is coming together now - we're ordering materials and organising cutting, have a space to build in and milestones to work to. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks!
The model of the boat has now been fitted with a motor and has undergone it's first water trials, without mishap.
We have a model boat! Reuben spent the day building a model of the boat in 0.4mm ply (yes you can get 0.4mm ply!).
Sorry about quality of phone photos, will get some better ones soon.
© University of Southampton Solar Splash Team 2009